The Bachelor

A couple of weeks ago I got the opportunity to go to the finale of The Bachelor!  So fun!  We got there around 1:00 and waited in line for about an hour and a half and then went to a holding area.  The taping was 3 hours long (live East Coast time).  I went with my friend, Lindsey and her 2 friends.  We had a great time!

 Here we are after with our roses and the t-shirts that 2 of us won (they only gave out 5 total!).

It's a small studio.  Just about every seat is a good one. And no, we weren't allowed to take our phones in with us, but we are rebels and did anyway and Dawn was gutsy and took a picture (hence it being blurry b/c she was trying to hurry without anyone seeing us)

 And here I am on TV!  :)

Lunch with the kiddos

It was that time again - have lunch with your kids day, at school.  I went and picked up McDonald's and we had ourselves a feast. I lucked out this year with their lunches being one right after the other.  I always enjoy going to eat with them and their friends.  :)

Avery's 10!

Avery's birthday was last month and since it was her even year she got to have a birthday party with her friends.  She chose to take 3 friends (cousin Lexi and twin friends Ella and Carly) to an indoor tramoline park near us.  They bounced and got very sweaty for almost 2 hours.   Then it was time to come back to the house to have pizza, open gifts and have cake.  She wanted a sherbet cake, so I made it and it was a hit.  I believe she had a very fun birthday!  :)

Avery

 Devin

 Grandma Sumida even got out of the house and came with us!

 Justin

 Justin and Devin playing dodge ball

 What a sweet brother.  He gave her $10 of his own money!

 Heart shaped Papa Murphy's - the perk of having your birthday on Valentine's Day.

Awards

Yes, I'm a bit behind, but honestly there wasn't a lot to post in January or February.  This is fun stuff though.  Devin and Avery's first semester awards ceremonies were on the same day and both of them received an award.  This is Devin's first time getting an award because they don't do them for kindergartners, so he was pretty thrilled!  Devin's is for "Most Inspirational".  Woo hoo, Devin!  Here he is with his teacher, Mrs. Mata.

 And Avery's was for 'Academic Achievement in Writing'.  Go Avery!  And here she is with her teacher that she adores, Mrs. McNamara.

So proud of both of you!  XOXOXOX

Camping over Christmas Break

Over Christmas break we did a camping trip to Riverside.  I know...Riverside?  But there is a great county park there - Rancho Jurupa.  When Sandi was here over Christmas she taught Devin how to play Steal the Pile and he's loved it ever since.

Hanging out in the trailer

Playing on the rock playground

This cook tree was right next to our campsite.  We really scored on our site this time!

Kirk got the flu while we were there, so it was up to me to take the kids to do all the different stuff while he slept.  He was very, very sick.  Here we are at the park.

We had invited our friends, the Paulsen's and they were good sports and still came even though Kirk was sick in the trailer.  Thank goodness they did, too.  It really helped our spirits.  Wasn't so fun without Kirk around.

Sumida's and Paulsen's

This is the fun tree kids loved playing in next to where we were staying.

Our campsite.

Big Bear

On the last weekend of the year we were invited up to our friends (the Paulsen's) cabin in Big Bear.  Kirk had to work on Friday and I had to do sharing time at church on Sunday, so we decided to go up just for the day on Saturday.  I had looked at the weather report and there was only a 10% chance of snow.  We left at about 9:00 that morning and were disappointed the closer we got to their cabin because of the lack of snow.  There was enough for the kids to play around outside in, but I had pictured there being much more since it had snowed earlier in the week.  We were in charge of lunch and had brought Papa Murphy's, so when we got there we heated it up while the kids played around.  We then noticed it was starting to snow!  After lunch we headed out to a place Carly noticed had a good amount of snow and would be great for sledding.  By the time we got there it was snowing really good. And snowing it kept on doing...for hours.  It was a blast!  Sledding was so much fun and the fact that it snowed really good was icing on the cake.  It ended up snowing so much we got stuck for the night.  It was too late to go out and get chains, so we spent the night and the next morning Brian took Kirk to Kmart to get some, but it still wasn't going to be in time to get to church, so we stayed, went to the ward up there and then headed down the mountain.  It was such a fun and unexpected weekend!

 This picture was SOOOOO funny in real life!  That is Avery getting a face full of snow.  The poor thing was not happy and it stung, but darn, it was funny!

 Avery's bright red face after getting hit in the face with snow.

 Devin also got plastered.  Check out his nostrils!

 Brian had to stop Kirk coming down the hill before he plowed into a fence.

 Fun icicles found on this bench.

 Some other friends from the ward, the Lowes, were up there for the week too, so they came over for dinner.

 Silly kids went and scooped up snow from outside to eat.

 Putting the chains on.